and burned the compressed .iso file to a DVD disk.
Are you saying that on the DVD R is an .iso file and only an .iso file. If so it would never play on a DVD player.
The folders on a DVD are VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. In the VIDEO_TS folder are the files that make up the movie and menu's etc, they would be Video_TS.BUP, .VOB and .IFO, then VTS_01.BUP and .ifo and then VTS_01_0.VOB and VTS_01_1.VOB etc etc etc
The .VOB files contain the actual video and audio data, not to mention subtitles, extra viewing angles, pretty much everything you see and hear. They are up to a gigabyte in size and are numbered sequentially.
The .IFO files contain information about the .VOB files. Your DVD player will use these to locate and sequence the video and audio, figure out where each chapter begins and ends, etc. The .BUP files are backups of the .IFO files.
The VIDEO_TS.IFO and .VOB files are the first items that the DVD player will access, and generally contain the menu, at least in the case of home-authored DVDs.